Letters To The Editor

PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Do better than fertility sweepstakes

Is anyone else not prepared to “celebrate” the birth of seven babies to the McCaughey family? While most news accounts are breathlessly enthusiastic, consider for a moment.

A healthy 29-year-old mother took fertility drugs and produced a healthy daughter. Most parents with fertility problems would be thrilled to have this precious little girl. But no - try for more!

“God gave me these babies” the father said. Not necessarily so. Interestingly, while the parents were unwilling to have doctors abort the weakest embryos in vitro to allow survival of those with a chance, they were willing to try science’s latest fertility experiment.

If the seven do survive, what of their future? An economic expert has estimated the cost to raise one child at $289,000. Multiply this times seven. Who pays? Presently, well-wishers are volunteering everything from minivans to diaper-changing shifts. But what if multiple births become common? There are several sets of quadruplets in the U.S. already whose promised goodies at birth have dwindled to nothing. Even the one set of existing sextuplets had to remind the world of their needs after the recent one-better births.

Birth defects, most geneticists agree, multiply after fertility drugs are taken.

As a guardian ad litem, I see so many sad cases of children who could use a foster or adoptive home to grow into loved and loving citizens.

If you don’t have children, forget fertility drugs and offer to raise a loving child whose sperm or egg may not be your own. That’s a miracle. Ruth F. Dixon Spokane

We routinely overlook concept of duty

We read your columns and letters to the editor. We hear about everyone’s rights. What we do not hear about are their duties created by those rights.

Does anyone recognize and acknowledge that rights involve duties? We talk and agonize about the world’s social problems, drunk driving, teenage pregnancy, drug use and abuse, lack of family values - a plethora of woes created for the world today by the exercise of rights without duties.

Perhaps if this concept of rights with duties was taught at home and in our schools, to our young and even our not so young, this world would become a less self-centered place, with responsibility and respect replacing robbery and rape. R.L. Lambert Spokane

Put proper emphasis on responsibility

Because we live in America, everyone preaches freedom. Freedom to do whatever we want, even though that act may hurt someone else. Where is the personal responsibility in this country?

Personal responsibility is not promoted by our media, our justice system or our family units. This is a major problem. We engage in self-destructive behavior because there is always someone or something to fix what we’ve done.

I am disappointed in the lack of attention drawn to incidents that involve drinking. Did everyone forget that it was Princess Diana’s decision to get into a car with a drunk driver? The media were so focused on how the car was chased by photographers that the drunk driver fell by the wayside. And what about all the adolescents at North Idaho College? Has anyone taught them that drinking too much has severe consequences producing physical and mental distress?

I am ashamed at our society for allowing blame to rest on anyone but the person who made the choice to perform that action. Personal responsibility needs to be taught and reinforced. Our justice system does not allow for this and that is a big problem. Let’s work together to teach that every action has a consequence. Kimberly L. Woodring Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Let governor decide troopers’ fate

Re: “DWI politics nabs trooper”

The only closure in this matter can come from the top. Not the top of the Washington State Patrol, obviously, but from the governor.

Gov. Locke is the chief executive of the state. The transfers of both Trooper David Fenn and Sgt. David McMillan were politically motivated.

As Washington State Patrol Chief Annette Sandberg said, “It would be even more traumatic if these troopers were hauled in by the FBI for a criminal investigation.” At the time she said this, she hadn’t read the investigation file.

Excuse me, but have we overlooked innocent until proven guilty and due process of law?

WSP’s No. 3 man now agrees the accusations against the troopers were baseless.

So what now? I’d rather take my chances in court with the FBI than be hung out to dry by the top brass of the WSP. Let the governor decide what is politically correct. He’s the politician. Barton L. Ludiker Spokane

SCHOOLS, TRANSPORTATION AND SAFETY

Parents, back your school bus drivers

I just finished reading the Nov. 13 article, “Driver, pupils face the music in bus incident.”

I drove bus for 10 years, until all my children graduated. Parents need to know that driving bus for a living is not a piece of cake. You have to constantly be watching for any traffic problems, such as drivers who hate buses of any kind. Then you have weather conditions and/or one or two children being unruly. Right there you have the makings for a terrible accident.

Bus drivers are responsible for every child’s safety on their bus and can’t ignore even one child causing a potential tragedy for others. Kimberly Nicosia should stand behind the bus driver because he had enough brains to realize that if he continued and was distracted, a truly tragic accident could have occurred. Her daughter needs to know that the bus driver isn’t the bad guy. He just cared enough about her life, as well as the other students’.

The kids who were misbehaving were the ones in the wrong.

Parents need to stop and think what it’s like to be in a motor vehicle that large and alone with 30 to 60 kids. You have to have rules and you need parent support. If you love your children, please help support your bus drivers. Donna M. Cummings Spokane

Bus drivers abused authority

I am one of the parents involved in the recent school bus incident. I am sad to see that readers feel this story was undeserving of front page attention. Actually, the parents’ version of the story was buried in the paper at first but the bus company’s response was given the front page.

Our children were terrified and crying on that bus for an hour, after being screamed at by strange adults. These are small children, not teenage delinquents. We were not notified as to what was occurring. When we did call the school and bus companies, we were treated in a rude manner.

After being told we could pick up our children because they were a couple blocks away, we were then refused access to them, while they pounded on the bus windows and begged to go home.

Imagine yourself at age 7, being told by an adult that you would “never go home.” Is it any wonder that some children panicked? Some were kids with attention deficit disorder have trouble sitting for any length of time. Why raise your hand to them and scream threats?

The driver sent to “resolve” the matter raised his hand to a 10-year-old girl. All the children saw that.

Your readers weren’t there. They didn’t see the panic and the fear. Drivers abused their authority, and it is obvious that they are not competent to drive a school bus. Kimberly Nicosia Spokane

Only drivers’ side of story told

When did The Spokesman-Review begin telling only one side of the story? I refer to the school bus incident.

My 7-year-old granddaughter is not “out of control.” Neither were most of the children who were terrorized and forbidden to leave the bus. A driver even raised his hand to a child.

The company seeks drivers using ads that say “no experience necessary.” And that is what they have, inexperienced drivers.

These kids are not juvenile offenders. They were singing. After the children were detained for over an hour, with no word to parents, those parents who called were told they could pick up their children. Yet drivers chose to hold the hysterical children while arguing and insulting their parents.

This is not the first confrontation parents have had. Parents have offered to ride as monitors but the company refuses. And a videotape does exist.

The problem is not the children or their parents but the hiring policy of Laidlaw Transportation and the attitudes of its drivers. Background checks are not run. No orientation is provided. They merely shift drivers around if someone complains.

My granddaughter stared at a wall, refusing to speak, when she arrived home. The only thing she’d say was, “I won’t get on that bus again.”

Ask yourselves why, and remember that stories have two sides. Please delve a bit deeper into this one. Gayle A. Murray Spokane

Wish I had such a good bus driver

I can’t help feeling jealous of the children whose bus was stopped when some of the kids got too rambunctious. I would love to have a bus driver like that, who would care if the kids began singing loudly or disturbing other children.

Instead, I ride a bus where the driver does nothing, and riding to school every day on the bus is torture. On my bus, teenagers bring potato guns, eat and drink, scream and threaten, tease, talk about how high they got the night before, tell dirty jokes and set off smoke bombs and firecrackers.

Don’t think I’m exaggerating or complaining. I’m merely stating fact.

The driver of the elementary school bus was commendably right. If kids aren’t reprimanded when they are younger for inappropriate bus behavior, where will they be when they’re older? On a bus like mine, more than likely. On a bus where simply singing a song is the least they would do.

As for the parents, what do they think they are teaching their children when the bus driver does something perfectly safe and right, and they make a big deal about it? They are teaching their children that the bus driver is wrong, and they were right.

So, bus driver, I applaud you for helping the kids to learn right from wrong. I’m sure my parents would rather me come home late than come home telling of horrid and disturbing bus behavior.

I wish I could be undisturbed. Mary E. Thies, age 13 Spokane

Driver must be in charge

I am pleased to see Laidlaw Transportation support their driver in this controversy over bus discipline (Spokesman-Review, Nov. 13). Transporting 20 to 60 children at once in an eight-ton vehicle is an impossible task without proper rules of conduct for the passengers and without those rules being enforced.

Did the driver and Laidlaw apply the rules in a reasonable, responsible way? Did the driver act to protect the safety of all the children by stopping the bus, by not allowing parents or their purported representatives to remove children from the bus without having established their identity and authority? From what I’ve read, absolutely!

The school bus is an 8-by-40-foot, 12-ton (including students) extension of the classroom. The driver is the teacher and the pilot. That dual role requires absolute concentration on traffic and the many intelligence-impaired drivers while also protecting the students from themselves.

State laws put the driver in charge, require that students observe classroom conduct standards. Cultural diversity, self-esteem, etc., cannot be considered in establishing a safe bus riding environment.

Children will be children until we demand more of them. Adults must teach responsibility, accountability and decorum. Parents are the chief abdicators here. They’ve come to expect the schools to do their job. Brehon K. McFarland Colville, Wash.

IN THE PAPER

Pro-con best thing you do

No, Opinion editor John Webster, your pro and con editorials are not the most controversial feature on The Spokesman-Review’s Opinion pages. Milt Priggee’s cartoons are by far the most controversial feature. If in doubt, read letters to the editor.

Actually, from your readers’ point of view, your pro-con editorials, giving two sides of selected issues, are the greatest improvement on the editorial page in decades. In combination, they’re more interesting, more intelligent, better written and more fair than most of your stand-alone editorials.

You should consider going 100 percent pro-con editorials, including political endorsements. Your readers would be much better served. Former readers might even re-subscribe! Don R. Peters Spokane

Perspective dustup farcical

As I read the Nov. 23 Perspective page and “Diversity of thought,” I thought what colossal self-indulgence.

Managing editor Scott Sines leads with “Peering over wall between fact, opinion” and then follows with fear “that no one will care.”

Staff writers Kelly McBride and Jim Camden write, “Reporters should keep their opinion private” and “it is wrong for a person in a position of power to take advantage of someone in a position of weakness - economically, sexually or otherwise.”

What are they writing about? John Talbott, where every story that staff writer Kristina Johnson and Camden wrote was biased?

Could it be about the citizens of Spokane who have not been allowed to vote on downtown issues? Is it the liberal agenda which this newspaper has suffered on the community for 20 years?

No, none of that. The editorial board said something socially incorrect that reporters didn’t like. It was unpardonable that while crime is always wrong, sometimes, you’re responsible for your actions, or “If you play with robbers they will steal the till,” to reverse a silly analogy of McBride and Camden.

Camden says, “Fairness is, after all, what we strive for on both sides of the wall.” But there is no wall and there is no fairness. The editorial board expressed an opinion that was not a consensus.

Quit whining, staff; it’s not your job. Leave the crying to those who are better at it on the editorial board. James C. Allen Spokane

Two points before ‘inane trivializing’

Where is columnist Doug Clark coming from? In his “Hemp boutique makes a dubious political statement” (Nov. 18), he did have two sensible offerings back to back: “… hempware looks durable and high in quality although a bit overpriced, probably due to import fees” and “as versatile as hemp is …”

The rest is inane trivializing, a cliche goulash that culminates with an idea as ignorant as it is trite: that global re-emergence of hemp is a smokescreen for decriminalizing marijuana.

Regarding clothing, back in the 1930s, when hemp was a rising threat to a number of powerful industries, a high-ranking federal official said, “We’ll never give the people hemp clothing - it doesn’t wear out.”

Today, hemp could help heal our forests. An annual crop that could replace virtually every forest product with superior products born of a clean process. Biomass fuel technology could let hemp power our cars, a road to energy independence. Hemp seed is nature’s finest source of vegetable protein. Hemp’s value goes on and on.

Instead of sensible discourse on the importance of hemp, Clark was compelled to such cuteness as “wildwood weed,” “wacky tobacky,” “save-the-planet hoopla,” etc. Rather punky journalism. Randall G. Clifford Spokane